comes to issues of the budget, we make sure that those at the very top are paying a greater share of what is required to run a government and fund basic research, move education forward. so we've seen this progress and i laid out in the inauguration and the state of the union a vision that doesn't require massive expansion of government. but does require us to do certain things that we can't do as well by ourselves. whether it's providing early childhood education, whether it's investing in infrastructure so that our businesses can move goods and services more rapidly around the world, whether it's to continue to expand our manufacturing base and encouraging in-sourcing and not just out-sourcing. it's making sure we continue to be at the cutting edge of science and technology and

research. or whether, you know, we are going to choose an energy future that doesn't just look at the energy source of the past but also looks at the energy sources of tomorrow. and addresses climate change in a serious way. and, you know, some people remarked that, you know, i looked -- had a little more pep in my step in the inauguration and the state of the union, and i have to tell you, it wasn't because i was off the campaign trail because nothing energizes me interacting with the american people day in and day out. the reason is i felt like this was a vision, if we can get it implemented, really would allow america to take off. our economy is recovering. it is resilient. but it not yet where it need to be. we've got millions of people who are still out of work or underemployed.

we've still got businesses that could be thriving if we're able to make sure washington doesn't engage in self-induced crises. we'll have a lot of work to do. let's face it, there's still a lot of divisions and arguments here in washington. doing our h we are very west to reach out to the other side, and i think there's a genuine desire on the part of republicans and democrats to try to get something done, i think there is a weariness among membership in the senate and the house about this constant grind, day in and day out of argument and crises instead of productivity and movement forward. the politics of a lot of these issues is tough. and members sometimes are scared about making the right decisions.

and they're particularly scared because they're subject to pressure from special interest groups and well financed organizations that may be pushing in a different direction. and so i think the idea here, the concept, is we've got 20 million people who got involved in the campaign, or close to it. we have four million people who actively contributed to the campaign in $5 and $10 and $25 increments. now, a sizable portion of those just wanted dinner with george clooney. [laughter] >> i think there was a large number of them that believed in our vision for the future as well. and, you know, part of what jim and john and i have spoken about is just how do we make sure the people stay involved? how do we make sure all those

neighborhood groups are engaged, feel a sense of connection? we did not do as good a job in 2008 i would have hoped in making sure they felt a part of the process. and item just not a matter of lobbying congress. it's a matter of them taking ownership so that if we're -- you know, setting up health care exchanges in their states, maybe they want to contact some friends or neighbors who don't have health care and say, you know what, here's something that might help you. if we've got a disaster like we had during sandy, is that community built in that allowsous to immediately help relief efforts. can we sustain and maintain the sense of citizenship that arose during the course of the campaign outside of a campaign structure, outside of the

immediate, ok, we're trying to win this many votes in this many states but instead, could we activate people around an agenda. i think here in washington, you know, this idea has been viewed ith puzzle -- some -- both the suspicion and people have been puzzled about what it is we're trying to do. because the usual idea is well, this just must be a mechanism to try to win the next election in 2014. and what we've tried to explain to people, no, i actually just want to govern, at least a couple of years. but i also want to make sure the voices of the ordinary people are heard in the debates that are going to be taking place. if you have a senator or a congressman in a swing district who is prepared to take a tough

vote or what they consider to be a tough vote on immigration for m or legislation background check for guns, i want to make sure they know they feel they're supported and there are constituents who agree with them, though they begin a lot of pushback in that district. if we move aggressively on an ssue like, you know, climate change, that's not an easy issue for a lot of folks because the benefits may be out in the future, and i want to make sure a congressman, senator, feels as if they've got the information and the grassroots network that will support them in that effort. so that more than anything inspired this idea. what we want is to make sure

that the voices of the people who put me here continue to be heard, that they're not just heard during election time, that they're not just heard in terms of dollar solicitations. or we are helping to build sustain a network of citizens who have a voice in the most critical votes that will take place in the next year and a half and if it works, potentially beyond. that's part of the reason i'm excited about it and why i'm so grateful that all of you are participating. one of the things i'm proudest of during the course of two campaigns where we raced an awful amount of money. the people that got involved didn't ask me stuff, except to be true to my vision and true

to our agenda. and all of you represent, like it or not, a bunch of true believes who got involved and are still here after all the ups and downs of the campaign. there are going to be ups and downs in terms of governing as well. if we do it well, then i'm onfidence we can move strong immigration legislation through congress and i am confident we get a budget that is responsible and reduces our deficit but also make sure we're investing in those things that need to grow and our basic social net is preserved. but i can't do that by myself. i'll just close with this comment. you remember during the campaign at one point i was

asked about gridlock in washington. one of my lessons i learned in four years here, you can't change washington from the inside. some people took that as saying obama has given up. no. that's what i've always claimed. i've always said that, you know, i am representing people. and the change comes about because people are activated, people are involved, people determine the framework for debate. people let their members of congress know what it is they believe. and when these voices are heard, you can't stop it. that's when thank happen $. what was true in 2008 is just as through today. what we don't want to do is repeat the mistake. i think i believe in 2008 we

made, where some of that energy dissipated and we were only playing an inside game sitting in a room with a bunch of folks negotiating all the time, but those voices are no longer heard. over the last several weeks, the press here in washington has been reporting about obama's charm offensive. all i've been doing is calling up folks and drying to see if -- trying to break free nd see if we could fix the gobblygook. and at this juncture, we've got to get members of congress involved in these discussion, not just leadership. because i think a lot of them the s if they don't have

opportunity to break out of some of those in gridlock. and then also, the teachers don't like getting too far ahead of their leadership. we're reaching out to these individual members to create a space where things can get done. the same principle applies doubly when it comes to the american people. the only idea here that we're promoting is the notion if the american people are speaking out, organized, activated, that may give space in washington to do the kind of work, hopefully bipartisan work, that's required. in order to do that, i'm going to need all your help. i used to say that being friends with a politician is like perpetually having a kid in college because you're writing checks all the time and

doesn't seem like the kid ever graduates well. well, i graduated. i've run my last campaign [ [laughter] >> but we're not done with the work that led me to run in the first place. i'm hopeful with your continued ideas and support, your voices, we can continue to make progress the next several years. all right. thank you very much, everybody? >> now, a discussion on how advocacy groups are shifting their attention to winning directions to influencing policy and legislation. from "washington journal" this is about 45 minutes. >> joining us, the president and c.e.o. of common cause. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> common cause, before we go too far, what is it? >> it was founded 43 years ago by john garder in. i had to ask because one of

your next guest's names is john garder in next. he was a moderate republican who felt everybody had special interests representing them in washington, but average, ordinary people. he got a couple hundred thousand people working on lobbying reform and trying to hold power accountable and do a lot of work on public financing and restricting and lobby reform. host: we brought you on take talk about donors in the white house agenda. organizing for action, why is this group and why is it important for you? guest: after the presidential election, president obama decided to take all the apparatus, all the emails, all the names and addresses of donors and put them in an organization called organizing for action. in "the los angeles times," in the new york times came out

with the record his -- the president was asking them to bundle $500,000 and if they did that they'd be put on an advisory committee and four times a year get access. common cause believes that's the wrong way to go. we want to push back on citizens united and believe money is important but money can stifle peach. -- speech. we believe the invention of superpacs and explosion of money, some people say $7 billion was spend in the last a election. we wanted the president to stand up for reform. him, he surrounding needs to get high access to work on immigration and gun issues. what we said, mr. president, we don't want you to disarm but lead on in reach.

-- in reform. you're the first not to take a public financing system in 2008 that every other candidate had taken since watergate. i got elected to the united states congress by accident, i was a chaplain at drexler university in the city of philadelphia. but when richard nixon fired archibald cox who asked for the watergate takess, it was in trouble because of money polluting the system, especially the presidential election. so congress put in place a system of public financing so that a president would not have was spend bama did 300 or 400 days raising money for his re-election. what we wanted the president to o was to say rather than disarming i want to lead. we want the president to lead

on reforming the system, have a white house contest and do what he did at the state of the union when he pushed back on the supreme court and said we ought to have full discloser and not anonymous gifts. host: mainly, the stance they took, can you describe what they did? >> yeah. i think it was helpful for some of the good government groups to push back on the administration. they just had a meeting this eek where having 500,000 donuts, they ratcheted up and said they'll have a scale of donors and i think they were talking $50,000 and less. we still think there's a long ways to go. the new york city times and "washington post" have already editorialized and said mr. president, your organization made a baby step in the right

direction. common cause believes they ought to start over. if the president wants to use this apparatus, use it to build a grassroots organization. limit the amount of money given. there were no limits on individual contributions -- for the organizing for action group. if i had been in that position, i would have said to the president, look, let's put a limit of $1,700,000 and have everybody give contribution. and when the president is out there saying i need this for immigration reform and gun issues q he also should set up a legacy of the next president and why should they spend so much time raising money, ronald reagan didn't spend time making money but had lots of donors and used the public financing system put in place after watergate as a reform. >> our guest bob edgar of

common cause. we're talking about dinners that became an issue over the group organizing for action and we'll talk more about that as it goes along. but if you want to ask 853.tions, 202-58532 202-585-3228 at independents. send us an e mail. the president, as you talked about addressed the group this week, organizing for action. it was a dinner wednesday night and we'll hear a bit of it. >> what we want is to make sure that the voices of the people who put me here continue to be heard, that they're not just heard during election time. that they're not just heard in terms of dollar solicitations. that we are helping to build or

ustain a network of citizens who have a voice in the most critical debates that will be taking place the next year or year and a half and if it works, potentially beyond. that's part of the reason i'm excited about this and why i'm so grateful all of you are participating. one of the things i'm proudest of in the course of two campaigns where we raised an awful lot of money, the people who got involved didn't ask me for stuff except to be true to my vision and through to our agenda. all of you represent, like it or not, a bunch of true lievers who got involved and are still here after all the ups and downs of the campaign.

guest: the president made an interesting speech but i have to push back on the president's comments. he said the people who gave him the large donations didn't ask for anything. what they're asking for is access and that's how organizing for action was first described as being an opportunity for superwealthy donors to have access to the white house. i was quoted in the "wall street journal" by saying that's like the selling of the lincoln bedroom without the sheets. he could have used that speech in a very positive way to say look, we did a great job, we won the re-election, a good portion of are the contributions were made about small donors. let's make this out of ordinary people. bill moyer says this the most dangerous time of democracy. we need to be a nation of and by for the people or by the

wealthy companies. citizens doesn't erase a couple thousand but others didn't care about their brand identity. the corporations that care about what people think they simply had their executives make large contributions. we'd like to move to a system where there is voluntary public financing, especially at the finance level. our friend, senator mccain, worked hard from the period to put in place the presidential public financing system. president obama ought to put his hand and arm around senator mccain and they ought to go to camp david together and talk about how do we restore the dignity of democracy? w do we put the principles back in space to the next president doesn't have to raise $2 billion and the next democratic candidates has to

shend all the campaign time raising money. mr. rom?" when he was running, was caught with a tape inside a private setting where people had to give certain amount of dollars. why shouldn't the candidates, rodney, obama, have been spending all of their time, talking to the voters, speaking of issues but were spending all of their time trying to appeal to relty donors. and the president says they didn't ask for anything. it's hard to believe the federal communication system is broken, the federal communication commission needs to be reformed. i have to believe a lot of television, radio owners love the fact that every four years spent in campaigns is plowed into television and radio. host: before we go to the calls, talk about the leadership of america, the current board chairman is jim

messina who had a role in the president's campaign and you see other directions as well. does that present a problem? >> it doesn't mean a lot of problems. jim is a good guy but don't think he gets it in terms of appealing to average, ordinary skens -- citizens. i said one time they should have named this organizing for a perpetual campaign. and i don't think they were going to give the a ratous to -- host: organizing for america. guest: i think they wanted to tweet it but tweeted it in terms of being a super, super p.a.c. as opposed to an organization truly grassroots, truly smart donor and focused on reform to protect democracy and not just another, quote, political arm of the white house.

host: we have calls lined up for you. green bell, maryland. ed is up first. hello? we have missed a point. our previous election was funded by the republican party by millionaires and billionaires. the president's message was clear we don't want to drop out the load on the most vulnerable in this country. what's happening is we had an election this past election and what's going on continuously, you're driving the same message over and over again that the president is driving, asking people to give stuff. i'm a p.h.d. scientist and i'm not asking the president for anything. i'm not asking for a penny and my relatives and all my people in my family, we're not asking for anything either?

all we want is fairness. we want to balance the budget but will do it in a fair anner. guest: let me tell you, i like president obama. the health care legislation is important and would have been stronger if we didn't have the filibuster and would have been stronger if republicans and democrats could have worked together to craft the health care legislation. when i served in congress from 1975-1987, my best friends were republicans and nothing happened because one party put it in place. our concern is trying to get the president's attention on the issue of the optics of this organization that he is putting together. we want to do exactly what ou're talking about. we want democracy focused on average, ordinary citizens.

and because of the 5-4 decision of the supreme court that lifted the lid off money and politics. we have seen an explosion of money. now the president had been successful in winning re-election, we want him to be successful in leading the reform effort. we'd like to see a white house conference on reform. he talked about 12:15 on election night about the fact that the election process itself is broken and needs to be repaired. people were still standing in line to vote. let's fix that. i have some crazy ideas that we had all these controversies over the years about registration. i have a 4-month-old grandson. why shouldn't every child born in the united states be registered to vote at birth? my grandson already has a social security number. what more do we need? when my grandson turns 18, let's give them the same ceremony we give to immigrants,

the flag, a constitution and certificate for their first vote. let's not celebrate the fact 60% of the people voted. let's get it up to 90%. i want to see the president crisscross the country with all these great supporters of his talking not just about immigration and not just about guns, not just about his set of priorities of energy but also about reform. he can set the legacy for democracy. here's a question for all of us, where are the founding fathers and mothers of democracy for the next 100 years? how do we get young people to see public service as a part of their lives? how do we encourage them to see that money isn't corroding the system and the person with the most money and largest checkbook or the people who get the most access. i'll say just this finally to your question. when i served in congress, money was important but there were limits on how much someone

could give. there was full closure. but what was interesting to me, i got elected at age 31, one year after i looked the word democratic up in the television book because of watergate. for the first year the special interest groups did not come with their checkbook but came with their talking points and liberals, conservatives, independents, talked about issues. my enemies didn't bother me. after they watched how i voted, they went and tried to defeat me time and time again in the district i came from. my friends are the ones who corrupted me if i'm corrupted. and would have said you're the best thing since sliced bread and put their arm around me and put it on the front page of their newsletters. but then after re-election, my friends said without us you wouldn't have won with .00051% of the vote but my enemies came back and said we almost

defeated you. here's a list of 10 more issues. what happens now on capitol hill is on the first day of the legislative session. the democrats have an event, the republicans have an event. they invite all the special interest groups to come and meet the freshman members. they tell the freshman members to spend $20,000 a week raising money for their re-election and all the special interest groups being bundles of checks and give those checks to candidates they didn't support in the campaign. and many of the elected officials are more interested in the check than in the talking points. let's get to a point where the people in the house of representatives and the senate are interested in conversations about issues and not spending all of their time -- why do we want our elected officials to spend so much time raising money for their re-election and so little time finding ways to collaborate and cooperate? host: tulsa, oklahoma.

marcus. republican line. caller: hello, how are you? host: go right ahead. caller: i'm calling because i was sitting here and listening and my thoughts on campaign finances is this. the decision came his conservative court, i think their thought process was along the lines that the sky could not raise as much money to carry his nomination. there were looking at their side , thee political spectrum karl roves, the dick cheneys. a religious think that the playing field has been leveled.

his organization, i really think that the focus should shift to gerrymandering districts and go from there with regards to money being raised and how we can move forward for more balance and fairness. twitter --f guest: let me respond to both the color and the on-line question. first, citizens united. eight of the nine supreme court justices, even those who voted badly on the issue, wanted the house and senate to pass full disclosure. the house in a bipartisan way asked full disclosure. the senate did not.

it overrode a vote of 59 support who voted to disclosure but were blocked because of the filibuster. common cause was in the federal court. we believed the filibuster is unconstitutional. we believe our founding fathers never intended that money would be equated solely with speech. money gives the opportunity for speech, but money can also stifle speech. this is the strangest supreme court i have come to know. all of its decisions seem more partisan than we were taught in elementary school. corporations are not people. money is not speech. we should have a system that works. there are two examples i want to share. the first example is on money and politics. take a look at what happened in connecticut. a governor was put in jail. the legislature passed a public

financing system where in the 2008 election, the 2010 election, and the 2012 election, 75% of the candidates take no money from special interests. more than 80% of those candidates won and most observers say the connecticut legislature, like arizona and maine, that has public financing in place and like many cities like new york and new mexico that have a public financing system in place, they have some of the best legislative days. the lobbyists can still lobby, but they lobby with the talking points and not their checkbooks. citizen united has flooded the system with money. -- citizens united has flooded the system with money. it was a republican president was scared to death of the railroad barons and felt that corporation should not mettle in politics.

to the point about redistricting, let me say this. take a look at california. common cause, working with a coalition of partners over the objections of the democrats and republicans in 2008 and 2010 had a stake right -- had a statewide referendum. we took away their ability to draw the line. we set up a citizens' commission. 30,000 people applied for 14 positions on this commission. they drew the line. this year, there was more competition in california, not only democrat versus republican, but republicans versus democrats. after the election, opposed by both democrats and republicans, there were fewer lawsuits against the redistricting plan.

he people were represented because the lines were drawn fairly and not by the politicians. in california, which used to be the poster child for how to do redistricting that lay, last november was the first time voters got to pick their legislators rather than legislators picking their voters. we need to spread that across the country. if you look at the house of representatives today where i served 12 years, it is not representative of nations in terms of its gender and its cultural diversity. it has also been gerrymandered to be on balanced. you can have a real play on words about the house being on balance. host: talking about the influence on the white house agenda. we do not what our official spending money -- spending time raising money.

this is from odessa, texas. the president has made that he is hoping to failed with his group. he said it. as his energy policy, if they started windmills back in 1975, that would have been great. it would have been way more cost-efficient. it wouldn't accept the parameters for we could use it today. guest: you make a good point. let me not be too hard on the president except to say the president, if he lost the election ann romney were president, all the senators,

both democratic and republican house members, democratic and republican, the whole system is tainted. money is corroded. this is a time where we have to take democracy back and we've got to lessen the impact of money. if i wanted to run for the house of representatives, we need to make it so that i would take no money from special interests, and i would go out and fund- raiser -- let's take $100 -- if i raise $100 in my district or my state, let's match it with four hundred dollars of public funds. floridase that $100 in or hollywood or in chicago or new york, i can keep the $100, but i cannot have it matched. what we are trying to do with that concept is to make the

special interest the district or state, and not a lobbyist on case street, who are shelling out thousands and thousands of dollars to democrats, candidates, senate and house candidates. let's find a way in which special interests continue to lobby with their ideas, their thoughts, they're talking points, but not put their money. it can be a voluntary system. if wealthy people wanted to use the money, that is fine. janet napolitano who serves in washington as head of homeland security, she is the only person in the united states to run for governor in arizona on the public financing system that was in place. she said to me one time, it was the first time she had a fund- raiser in a poor neighborhood, because in order to qualify for the money, she had to raise $2,005 bills.

-- 2,000 $5 bills. when her opponent had the president, it come in to raise money, her public financing money could not compete. when she was elected, she was not controlled by any interest. she could make decisions based on what was in the best interests of the people of arizona. witter --s from t i say yes, the cat is out of the bag, the lid has been taken off the can of worms. -- back in the 1950's, they invented a vaccine to eliminate polio.

it was invented by dr. jonas salk. incame to a group of us congress and said, are you an optimist or pessimist? he said, pessimist just have to wait for the sky to fall. i say, how can i make the world better? it is a handful of people that change the world. it is a handful of people who are courageous. when dr. martin luther king helped to get the voting rights legislation passed, the civil rights legislation, he had a majority for about 30 seconds. he did not stand around waiting for a majority. he stood up and spoke out. let no one be- discouraged by police that there is nothing one man or woman can do. you and i will have to repent for this generation not only the eight words in bad words, but the appalling silence of good

people. i want to see a courageous remnant of good people, democrats, republicans, and independents, changed the democracy we have so that it is wrong in fact by the people. i want to see us have a national redistricting plan that is fair and equitable. i want to see every eligible voter voting. i want to see voting come up to 80%-90%. i do not want to see either party tried to suppress the vote. one of the conservative portions of our political system told voters in 2008 that republicans vote on tuesday, democrats vote on wednesday. we caught them with rubble calls in philadelphia telling people in the african-american community if you have a traffic ticket or have not paid your child support, you will be arrested at the polls. these practices are still at work. let's get democracy right.

money is corroding the opportunity to do that. jersey on the new democrats' line. caller: agree with everything you say. i am very proud that you're my president, president of springfield high in 1951. italian kid half asleep with the funny hair. graduated fromi the same high school. springfield, delaware county. what becamever knew of you. i knew you were in politics. i have seen you on the show before. i am proud of what you're doing. i went on to become a successful musician. the reason why i say that -- i can barely make it in the music business. i think that the tea party are people that have taken five

piano lessons and want to take over the symphony orchestra. i will leave you with that thought. guest: as you know, i was a preacher at the age of 19 and a congressman at the age of 31. i was president of the graduate school. now i had a common cause. i live my life with great illustrations. you have to know that i will probably still but one and use it. i think you're right. when i got elected to congress and was sworn in, i looked around, and it scared but to realize that the people standing there beating -- being sworn in were no brighter than i was. ofhave a system that is made -- made up of average people. democracy is supposed to be a representative form of government. we want our representatives to represent the constituents that and then there. we once order -- we want

districts to be fairly drawn. as long as money is controlling the outcomes, if is being controlled by the energy companies, so we keep an oil based economy while we should be moving to a large portion of our energy coming from alternative sources, a lot of that has to do with money. let's not overlook the defense budget. we have a defense budget that is larger than the combined budgets of 13 of the largest nations on planet earth. defense contractor in every congressional district. all politicians vote blindly for defense. we need strong defense, but not based on who can put the most money into the hands of the candidates or in the pockets of ther pacs and 2 can provide

strongest lobbyists. we need to ask ourselves, how can we get a defense budget that andquivalent and respectful needed today to address the issues of terrorism, but not one that is based on world war ii thinking. louisiana, the republican line. caller: good morning. no disrespect to you, but you need to put your thinking caps on, and look out the window dressing and realize that this is the dawn of the double and his son is sitting in the white house. he started the ball rolling with his $1 billion campaign. the supreme court responded. i would like to hear your opinion on that. i will stay online if you have any questions for me. i think you've got your history wrong. the decision of the supreme

court came after the president was elected, not before. it was not based on what obama was doing in terms of raising money. double, see obama as a anymore than i see former governor romney as a double or any other candidates. i think we have a democracy that is pretty good. we can change president without a shot being fired. we have a really good system. that system is in jeopardy because of the amount of money that floods into the system. that is why we want this president to lead on issues of reform. i would not go where you are going to think about the president as a double. the president is an honorable person. think you're giving him bad advice on optics of how you organize across the country, a grassroots operation that

support his policies, but also is pushing the ideas of reforms that are needed for whoever gets elected next. we've got to address global warming. it got to end poverty. toget to work finding ways live as brothers and sisters on a very fragile planet earth. we will not do that very well. and i served in congress, my best friends or republicans. we went to dinner together. we thought we were there to serve the public interest, not a special interest. tore is an urgency addressing the issues we face. --t: there is this maple ten, illinois, and the

independent line. caller: i believe you got to keep fighting. i also believe you've got to be realistic. all these things have happened over a period of time. it is unfortunate, because i'm a retired law enforcement officer from california, and i remember the rules in very strict and clear. i almost got fired early in my career for taking what was considered a gratuity. i know what that feels like. we have a system that is so corrupt. i really believe that we have waited too long to try to fix things, even though i still keep fighting for it, i just believe one of these days we're going to implode. it is the way it was supposed to be. sometimes you get to except that you're going to lose. what you think about that? guest: there is an expression that rattles around my head that simply goes on -- in a dark time, the eye begins to see. i think this is a dark time for democracy because of money.

is not so dark that cannot be reversed or changed. the was a politician that went to south africa in 1966, was startled by apartheid. he could have been very cynical, but he said, what nobody beats so contorted be so discouraged by the belief that there is little one man or woman can do against evils of the world. each of us can work to change a small portion of the events so that in the total of all acts, it will be written in the history of our generation. i want young adults and young people to think about a season of their life in public service. i want each of us to wake up every morning and say, what can we do to make our communities better, our state's better, our nation better, or world better? i appreciate the opportunity as head of an organization founded by john gardner, working on

ethics and lobbying reform, redistricting, tried to get money out of politics, to do the best we can to improve the quality of life in the nation and to improve the quality of our democracy. by thet overwhelmed challenges. i want to encourage a courageous remnant of people in all political parties to care about justice, reform. let's see we can find a way to work together. host: one more call from arkansas, on the democrats' line. caller: i am the mayor of a small hamlet here. guest: you have the toughest job of all. i used to say that local officials are my heroes because being a mayor or local official, you are aware of for the rubber hits the road. it,er: people ask me about

and i always say, you are in a position to do a lot of good if you will do it, because people come to you when they need help. i try my best to help them. if cannot help them, try to point them in the right direction. what i haveyou seen. i do not know what i'm expecting to say. i lived through the great depression. also through world war ii. i do not need to be talked to about what parties have done. i saw what franklin roosevelt did to polis out of the great depression. he did so many public things. people could not buy shoes for their children. he set up relief agencies. they worked.ccc, his opponents tried to kill the mall and did you eventually.

he pulled us through all that. host: your question or comment? to finish up -- my goodness. guest: let me respond to. i have an 88-year-old mother who just found a 77-year-old boy friend. we've got to recognize that person's iq and others who lived through the depression have seen changes made. franklin roosevelt was one of my heroes. just -- heallenge, was challenged, just like obama was challenged about obamacare. it turned out many of the -- critics loved social security, medicare, a whole bunch of the programs that were put in place. in my closing, i just want to say, i want us to get to a point where elected officials, once elected, serve the public's

good. i want them to serve that good and represent their people without having to be tainted by how much money they can raise. when i ran for congress, i had a total of four dollars in the bank. i was making and $11,000 salary. the congressional salary was $44,000 at the time. i thought that was more money than i could ever imagine seeing. it seems to me we've got to get to the point where average ordinary people give a season of their life to public service, have an opportunity to step forward, run for public office, and your not overwhelmed simply brothers whooch have billions of dollars can buy their way into elections. one final point, this last election, there was a myth that occurred after the election that the super billionaires', karl

rove groups, did not win. i have to say, i think that is false. what happened is because of citizens united, because of taking the lid off, money plowed into the system. the people who won, even those who you think are the good people who won, they had to raise a lot of money. they spent most of their time raising money. -- togot to get lori not lowering that. up the television airwaves? they belong to america. have a new project where we are trying to take pact some of that pie for the public good. host: our time has run out. bob edgar, thank you for your time. >> tomorrow on "washington ta talks" robert cose about the future of the

political party. will discuss politics and news of the day. looks at the growing threat of cyber attacks within the west "washington journal to go live at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. journal" live at 7:00 eastern on c-span. >> in his weekly address, president obama focuses on a energy policy. and representative paul ryan gives the republican response. >> hi, everybody. as a nation, our top priority is growing our economy and creating good middle class jobs. that's why this week i'm speaking to you from the argonne national laboratory in illinois, because few areas hold as much promise as what they're focused on right here harnessing american energy. talking after years of about it, we're finally poised to take control of our energy

future. we produce more oil than we have in 15 years. we import less oil than we have in 20 years. we've doubled the amount of renewable energy we generate from sources like wind and solar with tens of thousands of good jobs to show for it. we're producing more natural gas than ever before -- with hundreds of thousands of good jobs to show for it. we've supported the first new nuclear power plant since the 1970s. and we're sending less carbon pollution into the environment than we have in nearly 20 years. so we're making real progress. but over the past few weeks, we got a reminder that we need to do more. we went through another spike in gas prices, just like last year, and the year before that. it happens every year. it's a serious blow to your budget -- like getting hit with a new tax coming right out of your pocket. over the past four years, as

part of our all-of-the-above energy strategy, we've taken steps to soften that blow by making sure our cars use less gas. we've put in place the toughest fuel economy standards in our history so that by the middle of the next decade, our cars will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. over the life of a new car, the average family will save more than $8,000 at the pump. but the only way we're going to break this cycle of spiking gas prices for good is to shift our cars and trucks off of oil for good. that's why, in my state of the union address, i called on congress to set up an energy security trust to fund research into new technologies that will help us reach that goal. here's how it would work. much of our energy is drawn from lands and waters that we, the public, own together. so i'm proposing that we take some of our oil and gas revenues from public lands and put it towards research that will benefit the public, so that we can support american ingenuity without adding a dime to our deficit. we can support scientists who

are designing new engines that are more energy efficient; developing cheaper batteries that go farther on a single charge; and devising new ways to fuel our cars and trucks with new sources of clean energy -- like advanced biofuels and natural gas -- so drivers can one day go coast-to-coast without using a drop of oil. now, this idea isn't mine. it's actually built off a proposal put forward by a non- partisan coalition of ceos and retired generals and admirals. so let's take their advice and free our families and our businesses from painful spikes in gas prices once and for all. and in the meantime, let's keep moving forward on an all-of- the-above energy strategy. a strategy where we produce more oil and gas here at home, but also more biofuels and fuel-efficient vehicles; more solar power and wind power. a strategy where we put more people to work building cars, homes and businesses that waste less energy. we can do this. we're americans. and when we commit ourselves to something, there's no telling how far we'll go. thanks and have a great weekend.

>> next week, the house of representatives will vote on a plan to improve the lives of american families by balancing the budget in ten years. how do we do it? well, it's pretty simple: we stop spending money we don't have. historically, we've paid a little less than one-fifth of our income in taxes to the federal government each year. but the government has spent morea lot more. and the results are plain to see: despite the president's promise, the stimulus didn't work. today, 46 million people are living in poverty, the highest in a generation. one in seven workers either can't find a job or works only part time. our plan lets washington spend only what it takes in. this is how every family tries to live, in good times and in bad. your government should do the same. but the crucial question isn't how we balance the budget. it's why. the budget is a means to an end. we're not balancing the budget

as an accounting exercise. we're not trying to simply make numbers add up. we're trying to improve people's lives. for americans worried about jobs and the cost of living, our plan protects them from tax hikes and calls for congress to fix the tax code by lowering rates and closing loopholes. thee also going to approve keystone pipeline and unlock our nation's abundant domestic- energy resources. for americans trying to keep up with the cost of health care, our plan repeals the president's health-care law and clears the way for patient- centered reforms. for younger workers hoping for a secure retirement, we will protect and strengthen medicare so that it's there for themjust like it's there for my mom today. and for taxpayers fed up with the status quo, we will cut wasteful spending. we will rein in red tape, and we will give states flexibility on how to implement their federal welfare programs. if we take these steps, our economy will grow. our country will regain confidence.

and we will reignite the american dream. all we need is leadership. we owe the american people a responsible, balanced budget. it's not fair to take more from families just to spend more in washington. i wish the powers-that-be in washington agreed. president obama and senate democrats say they want a "balanced approach" to our fiscal issues. but their budgets never balanceever. instead, they want to raise taxes to fuel more spending. we know where this path leadsstraight into a debt crisis, and along the way, fewer jobs, fewer opportunities, and less security. what would this look like? first, lenders will demand higher interest rates. and when they do, interest rates across the country will skyrocketon credit cards, on mortgages, on car loans. and as interest rates rise, debt payments will overwhelm all other items in the budget. the debt will overwhelm our economy. our finances will collapse. the safety net will unravel.

and the most vulnerable will suffer. you think this can't happen here? just look at europe. we don't accept that futurenot for our children, not for our country. so today we invite president obama to do what president clinton didto work with republicans in congress to balance the budget. he can join in the effort, or he can choose the status quo. but he must choose. the american people deserve an honest account of our challengesand what's needed to confront them. we have an opportunity to face them with courage and resolveas we have always done throughout history. thanks for listening. >> next some speeches from today's conservative political action conference. first, governor sarah palin. then dr. been carson.

louisianamakers, representative, chairman of the republican study committee -- he discusses the congressional debate over spending and taxes, energy policy, and the committee's opposition to a carbon tax. newsmakers at sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c- span. >> the public is not paying as much attention as i am and you are. call the political community is probably about 10 million people, and it is the people that watch c-span, beat the press, fox news, msnbc, to a lesser extent cnn. they care about politics. we had what, 120 million, 130 million voters? a lot of people think about what goes on in journalism and washington as background noise. comesckground noise that

from the mainstream media, people forming an opinion about mitt romney and president obama news does not reach most of those people. fox news gets great ratings. it has a loyal audience. look at the shows. gets 2-3 million people a night. that is not the electorate. it is a big country. conservative media only reaches a tiny chunk of it. >> more with a political commentator fred barnes sunday night at 8:00 on c-span "q&a." first lady,private elizabeth monroe refuse to continue the tradition of making social calls to the political society in washington. she gained a reputation of

being queenly by her --. -- her critics. we will see the important role she played in the 18 04 presidential campaign of her husband john quincy adams and her complex relationship with abigail adams. we will include your questions and comments by phone, facebook, and twitter on monday at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> sarah palin told an audience of conservatives that we are not here to reprint a party. we're here to rebuild a country. speaking before the political action conference, sarah accused president obama about lying about his efforts to increase transparency and criticized him for holding campaign style

events for promoting his policy agenda. this is 30 minutes. [applause] >> as all of you know, i am not remotely cool enough to be sarah palin. i cannot resist coming out here for a brief moment to say a word about my friend, governor sarah palin. the mainstream media wants us to shut up. onceainstream media conservatives to accept defeat. media wants us to

be timid and high in the corner. the mainstream media is absolutely convinced that women cannot be conservatives. they are, and they especially cannot shoot really big guns and a hunt the grizzly bears. let me tell you that is why governor sarah palin drives the crazy.eam media batcrap it shakes up their entire world view. you know what? she can pick winners. [applause] palin jumped in early and supported rand paul. she supported marco rubio.

scott.ported tim toomey.orted pat -- supported niki haley nikki haley. this last election cycle, there were three republicans who won the new seats, debt fischer, jeff flake, and myself. she supported all three of us. [applause] something. you -- i would not be in the u.s. senate today people it were not for governor sarah palin. not for gov. sarah palin. she is a perilous, principled, mamageous, and she is a

grizzly. i give you governor sarah palin. ♪ [applause] >> thank you so much. thank you. the senator is a keynote speaker and he would lower himself to doing introductions for a hockey mom. i am so honored. thank you. we need more americans like ted cruz. coming from texas, ted cruz comes to town, chews barbed

wire, and spits out rust. that is what we need. i was just thinking how much i like texans. they do not mess around with our second amendment rights. all of this stuff coming lately from the white house to take away the good guy's freedom and the right to protect ourselves with the most naive notion that the bad guys, who ignore the laws, will all the sudden followed new laws. it is not about the bad guys. it is all about the lead. that shot of metal did the crime. -- that chunk of metal did the crime. background checks to learn about a person's intentions?

the idea should have started with yours. it is great to be back at cpac. it feels like coming home even though it is only my second time here. already i can stop those liberal media folks to write their annual conservative stories. how many of you guys are here? raise your hands. be proud. we are laced -- you are allowed, we are used to it. -- you are loud, we are used to it. makingd never dream of

you wait outside. we can come here for an adult conversation about the future of our country and heaven knows we need this. so much of what passes for natural conversation these days is anything but. remember no-drama-obama? now it's all-drama-obama. we do not have leadership coming out of washington, we have reality television. [applause] except it is really bad reality tv and the american people tune out a long time ago. entertainment tv is a good description of what is going on in dc because more than ever it feels like a put on. every event feels calculated to fool us. every speech feels like a con.

washington politicians, committees of both parties have a bad habit of focusing on the process of politics rather than the purpose of politics, which is to lead and concerts. even our guys in the gop to often have a habit of reading their stage direction. especially these days. they are being too scripted, to calculate it. they talk about rebuilding the party. how about rebuilding the middle class? [applause] they talk about re-branding the gop instead of restoring the trust of the american people. we cannot just ignore that we lost a big election. we came in second out of two.

we need to figure out our job. what will we do next? as we go about that listen to what the speakers have to say. let us be clear on one thing, we are not here to read brand the party we are here to rebuild the country. -- to re-brand party. we are here to rebuild the country. [applause] we are not here to dedicate ourselves to new talking points coming from d.c. we are not here to put a fresh coat of rhetorical paint on our party. we are not here to abandon our principles in a contest of government giveaways. that is a game we will never ever win. we are here to restore america and the rest is just making noise.

that sums up the job president obama does today. he considered -- he is considered a good politician which is like saying during the may off was a good salesmen -- bernie maydoff was a good salesman. the heart of the heartland of america -- i have news for the political class in washington. while they are busy worrying about their own political future things are bad out here. nearly 8% unemployment rate doesn't even begin to capture how bad things are. even the dismal rates announced of one. % economic growth -- of 1% economic growth -- they are working more than last

-- workings more for less. job creators are being punished. how does punishing job creators create more jobs? it costs nearly $100 to fuel up your truck. it costs tens of thousands of dollars to send your child to college. the price of a case of diapers today -- these costs have impacts on the american family budget. while middle-class americans are breaking their budget the democrat-controlled senate refuses to pass a budget. how many trillions in debt ago? all in violation of article one section 9 of our u.s.

constitution. no budget for four years? [applause] no budget for four years is not just bureaucratic bumbling. that is -- that is government refusing to declare what it intends to do with the people's money. barack obama promised the most transparent administration ever. barack obama barackty -- barack obama, you lie. [applause] there is a direct correlation between the senate stubbornly refusing to pass the budget and the senate selfishly agreeing to go ahead and spend our

children's and grandchildren's money. it is time to get outraged about this. never before have our challenges been so big and our leaders so small. when we were here last year the words on everyone's lips and the wish in your heart was for barack to pack up and bubble wrap the nobel and high tops and head back to chicago. the election came and went but the campaign never stopped. but our country is desperate for leadership we get instead a permanent campaign. leaders take risks for the good of our country.

leaders reached across political differences. campaigners double down on those differences. leaders seek to bring americans together to confront our challenges. campaigners seek to divide and to conquer and to orchestrate crisis after crisis after crisis to exploit. mr. president, we admit it. you won. accept it. now step away from the teleprompter and do your job. [applause] the permanent political class is in permanent campaign mode.

where do we go from here? one of my idols, margaret thatcher, offered this advice after her party lost at the poll -- she told a fellow conservative not to get lost in accounting. her advice to conservatives was to focus their concern on the people. she said, "look at every problem from the grass roots, not from the top looking down." she also cautioned conservatives not to go loudly on their believes. to which i offer a hearty, amen sista! we can use a leader like her today. just think about it. at a time when washington is so powerful that seven of the 10 highest income counties in the

country are in the city -- us clinging to our god, our guns, our constitution and the grass roots -- imagine leadership that actually takes seriously theidea of government of people, by the people, for the people. imagines leadership that's knows how to prioritize, to ensure national security and to stop government waste. that is leadership that would have as its guiding light it's great north star the u.s. constitution. it is no accident that its opening words are open " we the people -- opening words are "we the people." the majority of americans want this. is it any wonder there is such run on guns and ammo for

christmas presents months ago? me should see what todd got for christmas. it wasn't that exciting. it was a metal case for hunting rifles to put on the back of a four wheeler. i had to get something for him to put in the gun case. this time around he has the rifle and i have the rack. [applause]

bloomberg is not around, our big gulps are safe. what did you think was in it? i am so proud of you guys. college republicans on campus are so bold. my only piece of advice for our young college republicans is you have to be thinking sam adams, not drinking sam adams. [laughter] [applause] that is just a joke.

i did not want the ceo of the brewery accusing me of being an anti beer-ite. keep up your good work. [applause] seriously, when we do see harm, imagine a leadership that doesn't seek to exploit the tragedy, imagine a leadership that seeks real solutions to the violence, not cheap political games. that would be leadership worthy of its name. that would be leadership worthy of the words "we the people." it also means and in the poisonous practice of treating americans of different social, ethnic, religious groups as different electorates to be pandered to with different promises.

if we truly believe the words of our other founding document, the declaration of independence, with its world changing assertion that all men are created equal then there are no hispanic issues or african american issues for women issues. there are only american issues. [applause] cpac, in order to be effective and have any power to change things for the better, as conservatives, we must leave no american behind. even those who may disagree on some issues because there is a

solid, and ground -- a solid and common ground. they are not our enemies. they are our sisters and brothers. they are and neighbors and friends. it is imperative to reach out and share that conservative message of liberty and less government and lower taxes and individual responsibility. it is time we all stop preaching to the choir. grow. [applause] america already has one party that is expert at pitting groups against one another. we will never win a, a test of identity -- a contest of identity politics. americato believe in posset sectionalism and her

greatest achievement -- that no one is guaranteed success the everyone is guaranteed an equal opportunity at success. [applause] the greatest lie that the liberals tell is that government is the way to realize this. that is a reason washington d.c. is an island of prosperity and it's a nation mired. -- mired in recession. the more it picks winners and losers, the more crony capitalists win, the more the rest of us lose. whether it is clean energy or free obama phones or prophylactics -- if he did not

have a team of lobbyists in dc you are not at the table. you are on the menu. [applause] if mrs. thatcher with us here today she would remind as there is a big difference between being pro-business and being pro-free market. it is time for we, the people, to break out of the cronyism. [applause] that includes in these resource-rich states. we alaskans know that they are not owned by the big multinational conglomerates and monopolies. they are owned by the people.

to not let them own you. you have a right for those resources to be developed for our use. and in the top-down approach in dc needs changing our top-down political process. the next election is 20 months away. now is the time to furlough the consultants. if we truly know what we believe we do not need professionals to tell us. [applause] if we truly seek to know the hearts and minds of the american people there is no substitute from going out and asking them, being one of them with real-world experience. actual conversation with actual hard working americans.

that goes with canada as well. -- candidates as it means looking towards our communities, small businesses, a tea party rallies, at city halls. more people who are willing to lead -- do you know someone whose judgment you trust? someone who doesn't just preach common-sense but actually live it. encourage him or her to run for office. are you mad as hell and think you have a better way? run yourself. do not let the big money men and big bad media scare you off. do not let them invalidate you. you undoubtedly have more real- world practical experience. that is real life.

those in the political bubble will tell you who is worthy and who doesn't fit their bill. the last thing we need is washington d.c. vetting our candidates.[applause] it is these experts that keep losing elections. if they feel strongly about who should run in this party they should buck up and run. the architect can head on back to the great lone star state and put their name on the ballots. although i hope they get a discount for consulting services.[laughter] you have heard a lot of different voices offer a lot of

different ideas. i am just humbled -- i am grateful to be one of them. i have been so blessed in these past years getting to know america, not from the top-down but from the heart looking out. there is more wisdom, more character, more grit and common sense in the soldiers, the moms, the teachers, the laborers, the fireman, the fishermen, the students, the cowboys, and other extraordinary americans that i met along the way than will ever be found in the parties in power across the river. [applause] we have one message to send to washington, i'm sure it would be this, get over yourself. it is not about you.[applause]

it is about families struggling to find half a million dollars for college tuition. it is about americans working longer for less. it is about small businesses not knowing from one day to the next what taxes, what new government mandate we are going to get hit with next. it is about citizens being forced to give up more of their hard earned money and more of their independence and power all exchanged for broken promises. it is about concern over the president's claiming power to direct drones to kill whoever and wherever without accountability. [applause]

it is about concern over a president that will prioritize not being able to afford keeping that white house open for those students but to send $250 million and our weapons to the muslim brotherhood. we deserve better than the people who call themselves our leaders. this is one fight that is worth it. if we have faith in we the people, if we change the foundation of work ethic and development of our natural resources, if we believe in the charter and freedom that guide us, if we trust in the promise of opportunity that binds us, if we know the providential hand that made america unexceptional and respect the innocent life that he creates, then we will save our movement and with hard work, senility, and the grace of

our loving god we will save our country. god bless the united states of america. [cheers and applause] ♪ >> ben carson did not rule out a future in politics while speaking at the conservative political action conference. he gave remarks at the national fire breakfast in washington. he introduced by the american conservative union.

this is under an hour. ♪ [applause] >> hey, cpac. saturday morning. we made it. welcome to the prayer breakfast. this is going to be a great spiritual conversation between two extraordinary men, dr. ben -- on and i would like to begin with a 47.sage from luke 12. for whom unto much is given, so much is required, to whom men have committed much of him, theyw will ask more.

ladies and gentlemen, we will have an opportunity to listen to to extraordinary men for whom much has been given. if you know dr. ben carson story, some of you might dispute the lessons that are given. raised by single parent, circumstances were financial distress was the norm. academic struggle in elementary school. how is that much has been given? god gave himts, him him that knew his gifts -- god gave him his gifts and knew his gifts and help to realize how much he had been given. i know you want to hear his story in his own words. and the university of

michigan medical school became part of his journey. eric grew up in connecticut. he also ended up at el. maybe this panel should be entitled god and men at yale. [laughter] his journey was one of a very successful writing career that brought him to understand culture persists faith. what brings them both here today asthat they are here speakers at the national prayer breakfast. eric and 2012 and dr. carson a month ago. they share their faith, their view of life from a faith but the national audience and president obama on the rise.

he is the author of a new york times bestseller. those things are not necessarily in the same sentence. in his series "everything you always wanted to know about god, but were afraid to ask." dr. ben carson, i know, conservative. he is a director of pediatric neurosurgery at johns hopkins, the recipient of many awards, including the presidential medal of freedom. he is also the author of many books and founder of the carson scholars program, which motivates young people. he made medical history by

leading a surgical team that separated 7 month old twins joined at birth and continues that miracle of gifted hands around the world today. man of accomplishment. but more importantly, men of faith. these men have been counted and embraced a deep and abiding faith in god -- encountered and abiding faith in god. i give you dr. ben carson. ♪applause]

>> eric is up first and he is ready. >> what is this. what a pleasure to be back at cpac. this is the third time i have spoken at cpac this is the first time the crowd has been all around me. this is really impressive. thank you for being here. i know that i am here today because a year ago i was the speaker at the national prayer breakfast. if you have not seen that speech, please go to my website and watch it. if you go by noon, you will get a free wacko bird t-shirt. [laughter]

i would like to leave you in lip-synching the national anthem. [laughter] that is a super bowl joke. i guess i probably need to get serious for a moment. or was it an inauguration joe? i get them -- joke. i get them all confused. they have to been much in common. to be serious, i wrote a biography of bonhoeffer. because of him, i find myself thinking about religious freedom in america. many people say they see disturbing parallels between what is happening in germany in the 1930's and america today. i am sorry to agree.

that me begin with my home town of danbury, connecticut. some of you know -- let me begin with my hometown of danbury, connecticut. jefferson uses the phrase separation of church and state. jefferson and the founders bought precisely the opposite. -- thought the opposite. they knew that the states, capital s, was always tempted to take over everything, including the religious part of people's lives. they made sure that government could not prohibit the free exercise of religion. [cheers and applause] you are cheering for the founders. not for me.

they wanted churches and religious to be protected from the government. they knew that what people believed was at the heart of this radical and fragile experiment that they had just launched into the world. where are the threats to religious freedom today? we are not talking about freedom of worship. in a speech a few months ago, hillary clinton replaced the phrase freedom of religion with freedom of worship. these are radically different things. they have freedom of worship in china. what is freedom of worship? in my books, i talk about a meeting with a man who was one of those fooled by hitler. he said something to hitler about how he cared about germany and the third reich and hiller cut him off and said, i built the third reich.

you worry about your sermons. freedom of worship says, you can say what you like in your little religious building for an hour 2 on sundays. once you leave that building, you will bow to the orthodoxy of the state. we will tell you what to sink about when life begins and what marriage is. if you do not like it, tough luck. they have that in china and had that in germany. the founding fathers said the opposite. faith inside that church building must live on and flourish outside the church building for the rest of the week. in fact, the founders believed that the success of the american

experience -- experiment depends on precisely that. an important book reminds us -- that freedom of religion was at the heart of the american experience. the book talks about the golden triangle of freedom. i bet you never heard about that in school or college. americans have missed this foundational principles given to us by the founders. the founders knew that freedom and self-government were not possible without virtue. without virtue, we would vote to line of our own pockets and elect leaders who would line our pockets. they believed freedom required virtue and virtue required faith. freedom requires safe. it was faith that motivated citizens toward virtue. faith requires free them. it is the golden triangle. the china of falls apart if you

falls apart if fangle you take away those three things. colson saw some serious threats to freedom on the horizon. in 2009 he drafted something called the man hadn't -- called n. the manhattan declaration. please read it and sign it and tell everyone about it. there is the hhs mandate. it has something to do with contraceptives. it has just about nothing to do with contraceptives and everything to do with religious freedom. it is the issue of the government saying to a religious group, whatever you think about these issues means nothing. we will force you to violate

your conscience and your religion. why? because we can. we have the power and you catholics are a backward religious minority. joseph stalin was asked how many divisions does the pope have? it is an ugly moment in american history when the current political administration is taking a page of the book of joseph stalin. when the government belize a ty instead ofinoriy protecting that minority, that is the beginning of the end of america. we protect minorities here. as a catholic who does not share that thinking on contraceptive protect those who have those views. that is what makes us america. [applause] in america, we protect minorities and we protect religious freedom for all, for every religion for every

agnostic or atheists. once we stop doing that, we are no longer american. the second issue of religious freedom is to attempt to literally redefined marriage. this issue is about religious freedom. here is my question to all of the legal scholars across america. what about the religious freedom of those who dissent on that issue? when the legal definition is changed will they be forced to stifle their religious feelings because the state demands it? this is not a live and let live issue. if marriage is legally redefined, it will cripple religious freedom in america and it is already beginning to do that. no one is even talking about this. before we make this incredibly

momentous decision about one of the most important things in our lives, how about if we have a discussion about this. how about we talk about religious freedom, which it is the heart of this. not one of the cable networks ever discusses this and it is about time we had this discussion. what we are seeing on both of these issues is the unconstitutional establishment of a religion. it is a secular religion and a secular orthodoxy. on the subject of marriage, there is to be no discussion. is science is settled. it is the future. some in the gop are jumping on that bandwagon. whenever someone tells you the science is settled and the debate is over, that is a sure sign that the debate is not over, but that they are afraid the debate might begin. [applause]

they want to tell you it is settled and let's hurry up and make this decision and get on the right side of history. god determines who is on the right side of history. not the mainstream media and not the government. [applause] most of you are here seen the growing states and gobbling up more of the free market and freedom and self. if religious freedom is threatened, it is just the same. these of the twin engines that have made this the greatest country in the history of the world. finally, let me say that when the government kills freedom of religion and faith is pushed out of the public square, not just bad things happen. many good things do not happen. in my book, i tell the story of what happens when a man tracks religion into the public square and let it affect how the government behaves. do you think the african slaves were glad will force allowed religion to affect his politics?

[applause] in those days, the settled science was that slavery was just the way it was and to discuss abolishing them was insane. christians believe every human being is in the image of god. christians led the conspiracy against hitler. he settles science was that the third reich was the future. dissenting voices were silenced. bonhoeffer was murdered by the nazis, but he speaks to us today. he was us not to let ourselves -- he warns us to not let ourselves be silenced. he called on the church to stand up and lead the church.

he asked the americans to stand up so that the whole country could be blessed, not just the american church to stand up so that the whole country could be blessed, not just the church. when has the state into the american square in this country? it was fanatical christian is that started the abolitionist movement in this country. what steven spielberg's moving amistad. christians led the civil rights movement in this country. it was a church based, faith based movement from beginning to end. rosa parks was a devout christian. she was chosen to kick off the bus boycott because of her faith. jackie robinson was a devout christian. rickey tells him to break the color line in baseball because of his religious faith. he believes god wanted him to do it. there is a movie coming out about jackie robinson. i mention it in my next book because everyone should know it was jackie robinson's faith that stood behind what he did. [applause] if you push the voices of faith

out of the mainstream and replace them with a secular orthodoxy, you take away the single most important check the founders put in place against unbridled statism. we have had so much of the state in this country, we do not know what it is. that means the one voice warning my fellow americans. unless we take this seriously soon come it will be too late and we will not be able to do anything about it. please take this seriously. please read the books, a free people's suicide. please fight for our country. this is about america. god bless you and god bless america. [applause] ♪

>> thank you. [cheers and applause] thank you. you are eating into my time. thank you so much. it is wonderful to be here. i think the organizers for -- thank the organizers for inviting me. thank you, eric, what you said. you made it unnecessary for me to talk about political correctness. enough said. i want to talk a little bit about what is logical and what is common sense today. we do not hear a lot of that. i do not think common sense should be something that is just for conservatives.

liberals and everybody else should understand and enjoy common-sense also. for some strange reason, sometimes they do not. it is interesting, the outpouring of sentiment i received after the speech at the national prayer breakfast. [cheers and applause] i got so much mail, letters, books, amazing, from everybody. some of the more poignant ones were from older americans who said they had given up and they were just waiting to die. now they felt a sense of revival again. [cheers and applause] that is sad that we have reached a point in our lives where there are so many people who feel they are not represented any more. this is something i want you people are in congress and who are in the senate and you are in

the white house to understand. you work for the people. you represent the people. [applause] you have to understand that. i also got a few nasty-grams from people. how dare you insult my president. you are a n-word. when did we reach a point where you have to have a certain philosophy because of the color of your skin? when did that happen? [applause] >> a reporter once asked me why did not talk a lot about race. i said, because i am a neurosurgeon. they thought that was pretty strange. i said, when i take someone to the operating room and i cut the

scalp and pulled down the dura, i am operating on what makes the person who they are. the cover does not make them who they are. [cheers and applause] the thing that is really important to me -- it is largely because of my own background, growing up in a single parent home in the inner city with dire poverty. my nickname in school was dummy. it was because i had a mother who believed in me. she would say, you are much too smart to bring home grades like this. i brought them home anyway, but she was always saying that. she was very encouraging. more importantly, she made sure that at some point we turn of the tv and started reading books. she worked a lot.

[applause] my mother works three jobs at a time. she would leave at 5 in the morning and get home at midnight. people always said to me, why did you read the books. your mother was not there. she would know if we did not read the books. back in those days, you had to do what your parents said. you cannot call 911 or some social worker or some psychologist who said, that the kids express themselves. -- let the kid express themsel ves. there was a reason for that. education worked for me. i started reading within a year and a half i went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class. the same kids who were calling me dummy in the fifth grade were calling me and saying benny, how do you do this? by that time, i had a different impression of myself.

education is a fundamental principle of the success of america. we are allowing it to go under. you go out there and you talk to the average person now. they may be able to tell you who won dancing with the stars. they may be able to tell you who won the football game. they cannot tell you anything that is important. they do not know about foreign policy. they do not know what things mean. consequently, they have become the ignorant. they have become the unprepared. our system of government is based upon a well educated and informed populace. if our populace becomes anything other than that, we will become a different country. they knew what they were talking about.

[applause] as witness to that fact, congress has a 9% approval rating. people go into the voting and say, i recognize that name. i am saying to the people of america is that we are responsible. this is a nation that is for the people, not for the government. this is the natural course of men. we have to hold their feet to the fire. [cheers and applause] that is why we have these complex brains.

i do not say this just because i am is a neurosurgeon. the brain is the most complex and phenomenal system in the universe. your brain, billions and billions of neurons, even trillions of interconnections. the number of interconnections you have rival the national debt. it is an amazing amounts. [laughter] it has the ability to remember everything you have ever seen, everything you have ever heard. your brain can process more than two million bits of information in one second. the reason human beings have these gigantic frontal lobes is that we are the creatures to have the ability to extract information from the past, integrate that with information from the present and projected that into the future. we can be proactive. we can plan, we can strategize. we do not have to just react. that is what animals do, react. a lot of people today have

decided that they would rather react like animals rather than planning and strategizing. this is what we have done now. we are reacting to what we see as our fiscal woes without planning for the future, without caring about what is happening to the next generation. you do not have to be a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist to understand that if we continue to spend ourselves into oblivion, we are going to destroy our nation. if i were trying to destroy this nation -- let's say you magically put me into the white house. [cheers and applause] all right. i take it back.

but let's say somebody was there and they wanted to destroy this nation. what would you do? i'll tell you what i would do. i would create division among the people. i would have everybody pitted against each other. a wise man by the name of jesus once said a house divided against itself cannot stand. [applause] then i would encourage a culture of ridicule for basic morality and the principles that made and sustained the country. then i would undermine the financial stability of the country dry been so far into debt that there was no chance it could recover. i would weaken the military and destroy the morale of the military. that is what i would do and i guarantee you it would work.

the question is, it appears coincidentally that those are the very things that are happening right now. the question is, how do we stop it? can we stop it or must we follow the same kind of path that other nations have followed before their destruction? all of those things i just mentioned are the things that happen to other pinnacle nations before their fall. this is not something that just started in the last four or five years. this has been going on for quite some time now. let's not lay the blame on one particular person. we all have a responsibility to recognize what is going on and to use our influence to collect some of these things. -- correct some of these things.

one of the things that my wife and i have done is -- i go into schools and we see all these trophies. all state basketball, wrestling. the quarterback is the big man on campus. what about the academic superstar? what do they get? a national honor society pin. pat on the head. there, there, little nerd. [laughter] nobody really cares about them. i was aware of a survey that was done in 22 countries looking at the ability of eighth grade equivalent to solve math and science problems. we came in 21 out of 22. i was devastated. i said, we have got to do something about this. we cannot wait for the government to do something about this. we as the private sector have to do something. we started giving out scholarships to children from all backgrounds who achieved at the highest possible levels academically and also to illustrate this humanitarian

qualities, that they cared about other people. we gave out 25 scholarships 17 years ago just in the state of maryland. now we have over 5000 scholars in all 50 states. [cheers and applause] these are incredibly bright young people. in fact, just yesterday i found out that one of our scholars was accepted into the residency at johns hopkins. fantastic. [applause] the other component of the program is we put in reading. we target title one schools, where a lot of kids come from homes with no books and they go to schools with no libraries.

those are the ones who dropped out of school. we have a 30% high school dropout rate. we cannot afford that. we create these rumors that -- create these rooms that no kid could pass up. they get points for the number of books they read. it translates into a much better academic performance. we cannot afford to throw any of those young people away. for every one of those young people we keep from going down that path of self destruction, that is one less person you have to protect yourself and your family from. one less person in the welfare system. one more taxpaying productive member of society that may discover a new energy source. we need all of them. [cheers and applause] and the humanitarian part of the program is every bit as important as the academic part.

we are a humanitarian mission. historically, we have been. many people do not know this, but socialism started as a reaction to america. people in europe with us and - look at us adnd said, look at those americans. you have people like ford and kellogg and vendor build and -- vanderbilt and rockefeller. they have so much money. you need an overarching system that receives the funds and redistributes it in an equitable way. what did they not realize? instead of the land barons of europe hoardng money and passing it down from generation to generation, they built the infrastructure of this nation. they built factories and textile mills.

they built the mechanism that created the most powerful and dynamic middle-class the world has ever seen. they built universities and museums and charitable organizations because that has been the nature of america. we have always been generous. nobody is starving on the streets. we have always taken care of them. we have churches that are a much better mechanism for taking care of the poor. this is one of the reasons that we give tax deductions to churches. because they do that. why is the government trying to duplicate what they are supposed to be doing? we need to think smartly about the ways we use our resources and use our money.

in 2009, 40 of the wealthiest families in america pledged to give away health of their wealth -- half of their wealth to charity. go someplace else in the world and ask for the of the wealthiest families to give away their wealth. they will look at you like you have six heads. this is the phenomena of america. it is not the government's responsibility. it is our responsibility as citizens. [cheers and applause] as long as we are talking about fairness, let's talk about taxes. some people criticize me -- criticized me at the prayer breakfast for bringing up god and the bible. it is a prayer breakfast, right? [laughter] i do not understand that. if god thinks proportionality is

fair, who are we to say it is unfair? the minute you begin to deviate away from proportionality, you begin to inject your own philosophy. that is always going to leave you in one direction or another. i think that is why god has a program like that. you make $10, you put in one. what could be more fair than that? i will tell you what is not fair. what is not fair is when you exempt some people and you say, you do not have to pay anything. we will take care of you.

that is very offensive because what you are saying is i will take care of you. the superior elite group needs to be superior an elite. they cannot be superior and elite unless you have a lot of people around their groveling around. you keep them down there by feeding them. [applause] the other ulterior motive is, if everybody doesn't have skin in the game, you can persecute this percent. if you come talk about raising taxes, you are raising taxes on everybody and you better have a week -- a good reason. it really matters about everybody. that is what is fair.

[applause] briefly, i do not have time to go into it, but health care, 1/6 of our economy. if the government can control that, they can control just about everything. we need to understand what is going on. there are much more economic models that can be used to give as good health care than what we have now. we were asleep at the wheel to let it happen. we have to find a way to make it work. if we have to work within the frameworks of the affordable health care act, fine. if we can find a way to fund it, fine. 80% of the encounters between a patient and a health-care

provider could easily be handled by a health savings accounts. [applause] 80% of the encounters with of the need to insinuates a third party or a bureaucracy that sucks out 1/3 of the money. we can use bridge insurance and catastrophic insurance. some of them, i do not want to call them morons, but they are similar to that. read the book. obviously, i am thinking about those things. it is almost laughable some of the things i hear people say to criticize. they say, he is a neurosurgeon, he could not know anything about economics it is not brain surgery. [cheers and applause]

i can tell you this much. even as a lowly brain surgeon, if you have the highest corporate tax rates in the world, of course corporations are going to have money elsewhere. corporations are not in business to be social welfare organizations. they are there to make money. [applause] a wise government knows how to use that to their advantage. there is a ton of money outside this country and inside this country just waiting to be unleased to make all kinds of jobs and opportunities if we treat them as our friends and not as our enemy. [cheers and applause]

and finally, we have to resist this war on god. [applause] aboute do not want to talk god and don't you ever mention jesus christ. and this is a place where we have freedom of religion and freedom of speech. it is absolutely absurd. let's let everybody believe what they want to believe. that means, pc police, don't come down on the people believe in god and believe in jesus. if they want to put something out about their beliefs, they have every right to do that. [applause] we need to understand that we are not each other's enemies in this country.

his is only the political class that derives its power by creating friction. it is only the media that derives its importance by creating friction by using every little thing to create this chasm between people. this is not who we are. we have much more in common with each other. we have to be smart enough to understand that. we have to live by godly principles of loving your fellow man and giving your best to your utmost so that you become of value, have values and principles that guide your life. if we do that, not only will we remain a pinnacle nation, but we will have one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you very much.

[cheers and applause] >> all right. all right. how do you think it went? do you think it went ok? [laughter] >> i think it went fantastic. >> i will play the role of dick cavet and ask you some questions. did you announce your leaving madison?

>> in 106 days i will be retiring. i will be 62 years old in september. i strongly believe there is the reason pilots are asked to retire before they start crashing their plans. -- planes. [laughter] >> he has the shakes. i can see it. i'd much rather quit when i am at the top of my game. there are so many things that can be done. [cheers and applause] >> really? that is a big announcement. i have a little announcement to make. are you getting out of brain surgery in 100 days, i will be getting into brain surgery. yeah. i'm getting into medicine. [laughter] people are asking the

question, are you leaving medicine so that you can do other things may be in the political sphere? possibly? >> i would say that i'm very dedicated to education of the next generation. lookourage everyone to go us up and see how you can get involved. once you get that taken care of, who knows? , this isgoing to say a very sophisticated, political audience. they can tell you entered politics because you're not answering that question. [laughter] [applause] we can see what is happening. if you're looking for a white guy on your ticket, i'm your man. [laughter] i'm onlyd say interested in the brain.

we will talk backstage. what do you see happening? i spoke about religious freedom. i believe that we are having a conversation, or at least some of us are having a conversation about the idea that we are heading to a fiscal cliff that ande do not reverse things deregulate and enable the market to do what it is meant to do, we will lose our freedom. i believe that religious freedom is a freedom that no one is talking about. they are somehow linked. that thethe link founders knew. you talked about education. , noat least two generations one taught us about the founders idea of ordered liberty.

how can you have a generation of americans and another generation be america if we do -- it is not your blood type or ethnic group. it is an idea. what if the citizens do not know what it is, how can we be america? >> that is why i wrote america the beautiful. >> you wrote a book? can we get it on amazon? how do i get this product? >> because then the left says, you are only there to promote your book. [laughter] i do appreciate the fact that last week it was number one on the new york times bestseller. [cheers and applause] speaking as an author, i deeply resent you. [laughter]

go ahead. >> because people do not know our history, because they didn't know who we are, they do not recognize those forces. >> that was my point. i thought you were not listening. >> i was. it.preciated >> you still won over time. we are about out of time right now. in a few minutes we have left, let me say how wonderful it was to hear your speech. was in the room to hear you at the national prayer breakfast. when you said what you said, it .id not come across as stinging on the contrary, i thought you spoke with grace and civility. [applause]

as christians, we are commanded to love our enemies. we are commanded to treat them with grace. the fact that you did that -- you don't think so? [laughter] we will talk later. the fact that you did do that was very important. i was dismayed that most of the spiking theind of ball and doing the end zone dance by what you said. i do not think it was appropriate. the grace with which you spoke was to me as important as what you said. i want to say to my fellow conservatives that is very important for those of us who claim to be believers. we need to express the truth with civility and love.

otherwise it is magically not the truth anymore. i want to commend you for doing that. god bless you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] davis. er alabama aru he spoke at thae cpac. >> i'm going to use a word here -- democrats. broke ranks with his party. he has been an early supporter. i know he will have to do some justifying, but he served as cochair. ladies and gentlemen,

congressman, artur davis. [applause] >> thank you, i think. good morning, cpac. commentaryunpleasant about this conference and movement. isn't it interesting that the same established media that claims so piously that it wants more civility and tolerance in our politics has no problem degrading and demonizing americans who happen to be conservative. [applause]

they want desperately to put this cause in some graveyard. i have heard it at the president's inaugural speech, the working title, the country i would build, the path of america would just disappear. they tried so hard to paint the belief in this room as some brand of ignorance. this needs to be said. there are 43 million of us who answer to the name conservative. we don't own any hollywood studios. the mainstream media may think we are out of fashion. this happens to be the single, biggest voting block, more importantly, this is our america, too, and we are not going anywhere. [cheers and applause]

now, conservatives may be the last acceptable but you cannot erase the truth. first, you don't let people at the bottom by pulling other people down. [applause] and every place that has tried that has turned out its own immoral light and gone down into the darkness. we cannot own our future when we lift up the credit of countries who want to dominate us. freedom, ladies and gentlemen, is neither tired nor exhausted. it is just tired of not being defended. so can we bring to a close -- you can't tell it is about the springtime in d.c. -- can we bring to a close this season of pundits who don't want republicans to win telling republicans how to fix this

party? [applause] now, that does not mean we don't need to be frank with each other. i want to be blunt about what we did and did not do with the campaign. first, for voters who looked at the world the way we do, they made an argument. most people have had the blessing of building a business from nothing or who found a way to hunt through washington's obstacles to make their companies were, we made a case that no government has ever fought harder to put a penalty on success. for those who share our sense that winning an election does not entitle a president to burn a hole in our constitution, thank you, rand paul. [applause]

we made the case that no president has ever pushed up harder against the constitution. for 43 million conservatives, we made the case that no president has ever ended up driving america more decisively to the left on domestic and social policy. there is only one catch. we can up all of our fellow citizens who were succeeding in building a business and for good measure all the voters -- and then add all the voters who judge government primarily by conservative doctrine, you get a lot of good people, but you still don't get to a majority. the ones who are left, they are not some island fool. they are our neighbors. and our fellow citizens. a lot of them think like us.

they just needed to hear from our politicians that our values will work for their lives and circumstances. think about this for one second. there are 21 million families that happen to be one of the largest groups. they are trying to pursue the most conservative values in this society, the notion that you are preparing yourselves that you can rise without depending on anybody to take care of you. four out of five of those can't finance college without taking out significant loans that will burden them for much of their work lives. how often do they or their families hear us talk about the

fact that conservative, responsible act of getting a college education is getting harder and costlier than it has ever been? what about 12 million americans that work with their hands? whose backs and legs hurt at the end of the day? their wages go no further today in pure earning power than they did when the supremes and beatles were at the top of the charts. the most these men and women and barack obama progressive manifesto was one halfhearted sentence. even though many of these so- called blue collars are as conservative and faith oriented as any one in this room, my friends, just so often we talk to them. this will shock you, but i do get asked every now and then why we didn't do better with minorities. i know it shocks you. especially dealing with the last four years. you may remember the chairman of the black caucus famously said that if another president can match obama's record, there would've been marches in.

do you were member that? guess what, black and brown americans are no different than anybody else. as much as they worry about what is missing in their lives, they worry most about whether their kids can do better and they know that question turns first and foremost on the quality of the schools their kids attend. the promotion of kids who can't read, not having enough money to move your child to a better school district or to afford a private school, but how much did we talk about any of that? i know some of us like to entertain the possibility that anybody might look for the government to get out of the way. lee's realize this, the american times of driving aren't takers.

-- the americans i'm describing aren't takers. they aren't living off the government dime. they are helping fund this country as much as anybody at our dinner last night. when washington takes their money, they feel it more than any of us do. the americans i described are invariably sending one dollar out of every three they earn to washington and federal income and social security taxes. if they don't owe anything at the end of the year, it is because they already had it taken out of their paycheck. they don't live on dividends. is it really so odd that they expect the government to align with their interests? we just spent $1 billion, more than our side has ever had to sell its case. for all that money, we could not find a language to tell enough

americans why our conservative policies would work in their lives. we were the first republicans since the 1930's -- we did not talk about middle-class tax relief, the first in my lifetime who did not have the self- confidence to talk about how our policies reduce the poverty and lift the poor out of dependency. the first who did not seem to get in this competitive world, education or mention the common defense. is it a surprise to see the number of conservatives fall, the number of liberals rise on our watch? here is the good news. i think we are going to fix it. fixing it begins with some simple principles. [applause]

first, if your vision of conservatism is so small and so cramped that it only works in certain places and for certain people -- it is a free country, you are entitled to bring that keep that lack of confidence to yourself. get out of the way. but the rest of us build a conservative agenda that will work for everybody. [cheers and applause] not just the high places, but the sad places, not just inside our walls, but in places we don't go. second, being conservative does not mean being blind to how our policies will affect families. this world is made of citizens who deserve politics that will speak to their aspirations. let me assure you, ronald reagan did not win 49 states by telling people he had no goal of helping

their families. lastly, never lose sight of the essential difference between the political left and right of this country. they think to struggle and the poor is to be so weak that you can never rise as individuals. they argue that government has to build a web of collectivism and dependency around people that america has to raffled racial agenda identity around someone to recognize them. we think that there is nothing a man or woman can not do if we give them the freedom to rise on their own. [applause] we have always known that a child that has difficulty reading can one day grow into a great surgeon.

a father who waits tables can raise a son to be a senator named marco rubio. a black nurse who works 16 hour days in south carolina and is a single-parent can send a son on the path to be a senator. they think individuals are weak. we know individuals are strong. what we believe works. here is a lot of stuff going on. i heard one lady answer another one, saying, "there are a bunch of conservatives down their." -- down there." guilty as charged.

this conference is not just a collection of conservatives -- it is a gathering of men and women who have seen the american dream work magic in our own lives. if we order our cause around these simple principles -- people are strong, they deserve our concern. and our values are big and spacious enough to work for all of us and not just some of us. not only will we earn power again, we will deserve power again. may god bless you and may god bless america. thank you so much. >> conservative activist phyllis schlafly says

atives did not win because mitt romney was the wrong candidates. she was when the last speakers at the conservative political action conference. this lady is fantastic. i spent some time with her before. she has been a national leader in the movement since the publication of her best-selling book in 1964, called "a choice not an echo.:" she is a fantastically the, please give a huge welcome to mrs. phyllis schlafly. [applause]♪ ♪

>> good morning cpac-ers. and thank you sarah palin for warming up this great crowd. i think we need to analyze why we lost last year to barack obama, who has said he wants to fundamentally transformed america in ways we do not want to be transformed. i would suggest that the democrats had a better ground game than republicans. they did not make use of all new volunteers to get out the vote on election day. i would give you an example of how the democrats were so clever in using early voting to get their people to the polls. michelle obama made a speech at the university of iowa.

they had set up on of the early voting places right across the street. she gave her speech and marched right out to vote. that is the way they got a lot of their votes. there is some fraud, too. you know that. then you look at the republicans. unfortunately we let the establishment pick another loser for us. the fight we have and the fight i am asking you to engage in is between the establishment and the grass roots. the establishment has given us a whole series of losers, bob dole and john mccain and mitt romney. even when they picked a winner they picked somebody who spent more than the democrats, added more programs that cost money to the taxpayers, and he tried to give us open borders to the north american union and through the amnesty that he lined up with ted kennedy.

we need to have the grassroots takeover and elect the kind of candidate sarah palin has been backing. that is your challenge. i urge you to be a part of the republican party because we have a two-party system, a third party is not going to cut it, we need to have you working in all of those party positions so that you can make sure we nominate and elect the right candidate. why is it that the establishment has given us this bunch of losers?

they have certain criteria they try to enforce on their candidate. first of all they want only candidates who will vote the way they are told to vote. we like to have one's to our -- we'd like to have one's that will stir up a little trouble. and then they want candidates who will talk only about economic issues and will not talk about the social or the moral or even the national security issues. that is such a terrible mistake. those social issues are the cause of the fiscal issue. issues like life and marriage and other issues that are more issues get to the people. they always tell their candidates that they want to call themselves a moderate and move towards the center.

that is no way to win an election. one of their chief spokesman was karl rove. he had almost four hundred million dollars to spend on the election last year. he ran tv ads for 31 candidates and only elected seven of them. that is a pretty bad record. if you ask a football coach what that kind of score was, i do not think he would keep him the next year. the other mistake they made was to spend all of their money on tv ads instead of on a campaign to get out the vote. the running of the tv ads is profitable to those that pick the ads. it isn't doing the job.

a lot of people to not even watch tv anymore. let us talk about the issue of omitting the moral and social issues. they are the issues that are costing us so much money. they are the issues that are causing the fiscal problems. take the matter of the decline in marriage in this country. we used to have a country where we had -- a great country that was built on the stable traditional family. the father, a provider, protector. the mother, homemaker. parents taking over their own children. now we have children coming into this world without a father. that is a terrible handicap to them but it is a big cost to the american taxpayers. the heritage foundation has made a list of 79 different problems that those people who are now dependent on government for all or part of their living expenses.

they are not all the little children. we have to take care of the children. but it is a good part of them. the heritage foundation found that of these 79 programs, there are 12 programs that are handing out food, 12 agencies that are doing housing subsidies, 10 other agencies are doing various kinds of social services, nine are doing educational handouts at various times, eight agencies that handout real cash, three that pay utility bills, those that handle child care -- two that handle child care. i am not sure which is the

agency that gives out free cellphones but you know they do that, too. this is a terrible cost. we have 48% of the american people who are dependent in whole or in part on handouts for the government -- on handouts from the government for their ordinary living expenses. i grew up during the great depression, we did not have any kind of handout. we turn out to be the greatest generation. [applause] we do not want to be a nation of people who are dependent on government. obama talks a lot about the social issues. he does everything he is told to do. he comes out for a daycare. i call it babysitting. he wants it from birth through to the garden and the first kindergarten to the first grade.

he is trying to establish a national curriculum that will be taught not only in all the public schools but eventually in the private schools, too. that is not what we want. that is not the kind of country we want. the establishment is trying to give us a lot of bad advice, like we should go for comprehensive immigration reform. comprehensive is a synonym for amnesty. "reform" is another word for amnesty. all of them will be democratic votes because many of them are coming in very poor and pay no attention to the federal law that says you must be financially able to take care of yourself before you come into this country. and then there is the matter of national security issues. obama says he wants to have a zero-nuclear-world. i know some of you have those

bumper strips on your cars that say, "when guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns." if nuclear weapons are outlawed only terrorists will have nukes. [applause] and we need an absolutely have to have the anti-missile system ronald reagan stood for and we know is so important to the defense of our country. these are some of your challenges. we need your help to take back the republican party for the grass roots and for the kind of candidates we want to nominate instead of the ones who follow all the dictates and orders of the establishment.

we need a choice, not an echo. we don't want a karl rove echo. we want the grassroots to be able to pick -- the kind of candidates sarah palin was backing. those of the kind of candidates want because they believe in america and do not take their orders from somebody later. ronald reagan proved that the way to victory was to have the three-legged stool. you are to the fiscal issues, the moral issues, and the national defense issues. unfortunately we have not had people doing that in these last punch of losers. -- last bunch of losers. i have been a volunteer in republican politics all my life. we need all of you to get busy and be part of the action. we can prove that we can take back control of the party because we did it in 1980 with ronald reagan. they had their establishment candidate who was the first

george bush and we defeated that and nominated and elected reagan. he became the greatest president of the 20th century. [applause] and another inspiring example is my ten-year fight against the equal rights amendment. we have everybody against this. we had three presidents against this. we had two first ladies against this.

we had most of congress, all the governors, some of them even are at this event. we had 99% of the media, they even had hollywood on their side. we beat them all. [applause] this is just an example that people like you, if you're active in politics -- and that is where the fun is. what else are you going to do with your spare time? it has its ups and downs and you do not always win but it is extremely important. for further information i invite you to go to our website, eagleforum.org. i invite you to follow me on twitter and come to my book signing table after this program today in exhibit hall d-e. we have to be able to be in a position to choose the candidates we want, the ones who will stand up for america and the constitution for the social, moral, and national-security issues as well as the fiscal issues. we need your help.

i invite you to join the eagle forum in being active as volunteers in politics. and always remember, as we say at eagle forum, those who wait upon the lord will rise up with wings like eagles and we will run and never be weary. don't you be wary because the fight goes on and we need you. >> the results of the annual conservative medical action conference straw poll were announced on the final day. 3000 votes were cast. the winner was kentucky senator rand paul with 25% of the vote.

second, florida senator marco rubio with 23%. rick santorum got a percent. governor chris christie with seven percent, followed by paul ryan with six percent and governor scott walker with five percent. also receiving votes, dr. ben carson, texas senator ted cruz, governor bobby jindal of louisiana and former alaska governor, sarah palin. weeks tosident obama the organizing for action. then, a conversation with water after of common cause. and the weekly addresses -- bob edgar of common cause. and weekly addresses with president obama and paul ryan. video onkes'

unemployment in america won first prize for his entry. a middle school in knoxville, tennessee, won first prize for their documentary on public transportation. watch the winning videos next week guns -- next month on c- span. >> on wednesday, president obama spoke at a gathering hosted by a group called organizing for action. the nonprofit advocacy group formed by people who worked to reelect him. the president told the audience that his priorities in his second term include immigration and gun violence. this is about 15 minutes.

[applause] >> good to see all of you. i missed you. let me first of all thank jim and john for organizing this. i want to thank all of you. i have got a bunch of friends in this room, people who have supported me even before i ran for president. news end, old friends, everybody here, in it for the right reasons. the folks who care deeply about this country and want to see it continue to move forward. , i'm pretty sure runpeated it in 2012, you elections not simply to get elected. you run elections to have an opportunity to deliver on behalf of the american people.

the central premise of our campaign was always that this great country of ours was built on some foundational ideas. the most important of which is theyanybody, anywhere, if are willing to work hard and take response ability, can succeed. if we have a growing, thriving, and ladders of opportunity into the middle class, nobody can beat us. that is the reason why we attracted immigrants from every corner of the world. that is the reason why our culture has always been viewed as dynamic and forward-looking. not looking backwards. consistently looking at that next horizon. america,news is that in 2013, is poised as it always has been to succeed in ways that will make us